Fiction

Ronnie Ravenwood smiled, soft and sad. “They told you I was evil, didn’t they?” Her voice echoed in the dark, wrapping around me like silk.

I swallowed, throat dry. “They killed you because of your stone.” 

I woke up just like any other day. Get up, get dressed, go to school. It was all normal up until recess. I was on the swing set the first time I saw him. A shadow of a figure that looked. . . like me?

I ran past the stores in Boston, throwing newspapers at houses. "Thank you!" I heard people call. I was passing out one of the biggest stories of the decade. The Boston massacre had been done.

I stared up at the popcorn ceiling. A record spun in the background, and lying there I had never been more aware that the world was spinning too– time was flying, my youth was slipping away.

Hey! So this is a small side project… should I continue? 

Then he disappeared into the shadows of his bunk, leaving me and Kael in silence. 

Kael’s stone blazed blue in his hand, steady and unyielding. He grinned at me, even now. “Three… two… one—”

I unfolded the fragile page, Kael leaning close as the lantern light caught the writing. My mother’s hand—sharp, deliberate strokes—spread across the paper. I swallowed hard and began to read aloud:

Kael paced the length of the dorm, muttering to himself. “No, no, no, this is bad—this is worse than bad. Purple blood? Orange Luminor? This isn’t random, Ryder. This is connected.”

But Seraphina’s golden eyes never left me. 

I collapsed face-first onto my bunk, groaning into the thin pillow. “Well,” I mumbled, my voice muffled by the fabric, “that went great.”

Now Kael was in it too. 

The hall doors slammed open again, and Professor Lenira Thale strode in, her green eyes flashing sharper than any spell.

My Luminor throbbed in my pocket, restless, flickering colors no one should see. 

The laughter and murmurs swelled until the doors at the end of the hall creaked open.